Create Your Own Web Comics & Memes With These Free Tools

I have a confession to make. I wanted to learn my alphabets because I wanted to read comic books. Not for the greater good of my life…not for a calling in the future…just for the sake of enjoying Superman fly or Asterix beat up the Romans. It was my gateway to literacy. I am glad I chose that road because I have stayed on it ever since.

You too must have enjoyed a comic or two. You too must have dreamt up comic book characters of your own. If Stan Lee could create an entire universe of super-humans, our childhood imaginations could too. Maybe then we only had our foggy flights of fancy. Now, we have a legion of comic book tools.

So let’s see how you can create your own web comics with free tools, and also its more infectious cousin – the Internet meme.

Pixton gives you a very easy to use and intuitive tool to create amazing comics with just click-n-drag movements. Then you can also enjoy the like-minded community and share your love for comic book art. Choose a format and start your web comic. The free to use account gives you fully posable charaters that you can bring together into short and sweet stories. Pixton gives you easy-to-follow wizards and how-to videos to make things easy. The free account may seem limited especially because it does not allow you to print out the comic, but I liked the basic tool for the learning. Then there is the multiple language support. Also, there is the community and some great work Pixton showcases.

Strip Generator is another complete site to sign-up with if you are into web comic books. Use pre-made characters or make your own, and just like Pixton it too has a drag-n-drop interface. You do not even need to register, but if you do then you get own online gallery, some extra strip creating options and more characters to choose from. The all-free options take it a notch above Pixton. Print or share your finished comics in the end. Or you can show-off in the community.

ToonDoo not only has ToonDoo Maker which lets you easily create comics with Drag n’ Drop, it also has tools like Book Maker which lets you put all your ToonDoo’s into a book. ImagineR lets you take your own photos and ‘cartoonify’ them with effects. Doodler is for the non-artistic types – if you can’t draw, you can doodle. Bring it all together on Completoons.

Give the Bitstrips for schools a miss as it is not free. Stop Bullying: Speak Up is a free web comic book download that aims to educate and put a stop to the bullying around us. Then head to the section of the site where you can actually start creating your web comics. The neat Comic Builder gives you layout options, an art library (for characters, props, outfits etc), color controls, and filters to design your own web comic. You can also create your own characters here or design avatars. Bitstrips also has community channels and contests where you can while away time.

There’s a good chance that the first comic book you ever read came from this Mecca of comic book superheroes. So, it’s comic book justice that you can also create your first one here. Marvel’s web comic tool gives you the choice between making a comic strip within a few panels or a more complete comic book which you can also download and print out. The latter asks you to register for free so that you can also save your work. The characters which you will be using all come from the Marvel universe, so if you love them, you can give wings to your fantasies.

It’s not all about comics strictly, but DoInk gives you a canvas for some art and animation. You can use the free tool to create memes and animated stories in Flash to share with the world. You can use the Vector editor (runs on Java) even without signing up, but then that keeps you away from the forum and truly sharing your work. After all, a meme is no use if it does not go viral. You can download the animations, post them on YouTube, and share them on Facebook. DoInk also gives you a Bazar to sell your wares or give them away for free. There’s also an ITunes app ($.1.99).

Toonlet and its Make a Comic builder give you that old-world back-n-white comicbook feel. You can create your webcomics in a jiffy if you learn the shortcut keys along with the handy tutorials. Also go through Toonlet Toonup for some great tips and how-tos.

If round, scrawled heads and popping eyes are more your style, then welcome to rage comics. You will find rage faces spreading as memes across the web. They have become a recognized form of internet communication and an urban cultural motif. The Rage Builder gives you a simple toolbar, a few pre-set rage faces, and a canvas to create your own rage comics. The text tool is bit of an irritant, but Rage Builder allows you to quickly churn out your ideas as memes.

If it’s interesting memes you want, MemeGenerator.net is one of the most popular tools you can plonk for. Browse through the gallery of memes made by users and use the navigation menu to look through different characters, images, what’s popular and the newest memes. You can quickly create your own meme by picking an image from the ones here and clicking Generate. Add your own captions and launch your thoughts on the world.

Meme Center is similar to the previous meme generating app, with the difference that it can create animated memes for you with a few images. You need to register and log-in (free) before you can use this site.

So, did the creative bug bite you? A flash thought pop up in your head? Even if it didn’t, try out these ten tools. With a bit of flair, you can turn a web comic into anything – a useful learning tool or a nice way to propose to your beloved. Just think it up. What does the speech bubble above your head say? Tell us.